Personality Types of Software Engineers
21 February 2010 / By Truity Clinically Reviewed by Steven Melendy, PsyD. on February 21, 2010In a survey of Brazilian software engineering students, Introverted personality types were found to dominate heavily. This should be no surprise to anyone familiar with personality type; Introverts are more likely to enjoy careers that allow them to work independently, keep a low profile, and accomplish projects on their own. Types of ISFP, INTP, and ESTP were over-represented among the population of software engineers.
Software engineers were also found to be predominantly Thinking types, people who enjoy using analytical skills and working with logical systems.
Much less likely to be found in software engineering were ENTP, ESTJ, and ENTJ. Extroverts in general were unlikely to be found in the population of software engineers. Extroverts prefer careers that allow them to engage with other people and would generally feel uninspired by work that requires long hours alone at a computer.
Research was conducted by Luiz Capretz of the University of Western Ontario.